Akatsuki Brothers
by Sumei1
Summary: [AU. What If] Obito was and is a good and loyal friend. Surly he couldn't be blamed when he wanted his friend to have a part in the fun too, right? When Rin dies, Obito, instead of leaving Kakashi for Konoha, takes Kakashi along for the ride. Disclaimer: All characters and ideas from 'Naruto' belong to Kishimoto, not me. (NO LONGER ON HIATUS!)
1. Prologue

**Prologue **

Obito walked through the marshy grass, mud squelching between his uncut toes (clearly Madara had not made them top priority). Grime covered his pale skin, which had not seen the light of day for months. But the mud wasn't bothering him. Obito was oblivious to the slopping mud and whatever else was mixed into the cold dark brown earth. He was numb to everything, except for the harsh painful hurt he could feel in his chest.

After the red hazy fog of rage had left his mind, Obito could finally recall what had happened. He'd slaughtered all the Kiri-nin with the new mukton ninjutsu he'd somehow unlocked (who knew what Madara had done to him? That crazy old coot. Obito had been sure that only the first Hokage had the kekkai genkai, but what did _he _know about history?) after finding out about . . . it.

Obito had seen some of it, through his sharingan. Rin. Rin. Rin. No—Obito had _known _surly it couldn't have been, right? There was no she was dead—_a white glowing mass of chakra_—This was Rin—_Giant gaping hole sitting right above her belly-button, an arm going right through to the elbow_—Sweet unbeatable Rin the medic-nin who treated Obito's cuts and bruises—_Eyes wide open in shock but at the same time behind the surprise there was—_His comrade whom he'd promised not to let die—_Acceptance. Joy even. Joy at being set free_—His best friend—His crush, even now—_Her whispering as death creeps up upon her_—He'd promised that she _wouldn't _**die**!—_"K-Kakashi_."

Obito had rushed over to the place, with the help of GuruGuru encasing him. Despite it being the first time the white Zetsu had encased him and allowed him full mobility, it felt surprisingly light-weight, and Obito had been able to move unhindered, and with more power than before behind his movements thanks to GuruGuru's strength.

Now fully aware of his senses, Obito stared in awe and slight disgust at the bloodied marsh that spread out from above him. (Don't get him wrong) he definitely knew the shinobi had deserved it, but how had _he _done that? He, the so-called 'failure' of the Uchiha had destroyed a whole troop of Kiri-nin, most of them chunin and jounin. Adrenaline rush oozing away, Obito could now feel a rip in a shoulder—a pulled muscle perhaps—and had a feeling it was going to bruise later on.

He somehow managed to trudge through the flattened undergrowth, making haste over to Rin.

He ran forward, blood, stale water, and goo splashing on GuruGuru's shell as he raced towards his goal—Rin's corpse. He didn't care how it had happened—it had happened and now the light from his world was dying. Obito stared up at the pale moon that taunted him from above. How _dare_ the moon keep shining after what had happened?!

Rin was dead. The world was _dead. _Everyone on this miserable chunk of rock could be dead for all Obito cared! Rin was the sun, _Obito's _very own light, and now she was gone, the world's colors had faded to bleak shades of grey.

"_You promised you would keep watching me! You promised you'd be there to help me!_" Obito screamed to the empty air. Because no one was going to answer. Not Rin, not Minato, not anyone. Obito felt more alone than ever.

GuruGuru, sensing his foul mood, stopped making jokes to him, leaving Obito to continue trying to gather his scrambled thoughts. He hadn't even felt this ruffled and distraught when he'd messed up on a field mission, which had almost ended with Rin nearly getting her arm chopped up. She'd reassured him it was fine, weeks after the mission had been completed, but Obito still couldn't help but wonder if she had ever really been mad at him, yet hid her true feelings from him.

From what he could remember, he'd killed all the Kiri-nin. Made them pay. They hadn't expected such a fight out of a person half their height. But no matter how satisfying it had been to feel their forms crumpled underneath his fists that didn't change what had happened. Rin was still dead. And with her, another part of Obito's heart had shattered.

Obito hadn't known his parents, and team Minato had been the family he'd never had. The Uchiha clan disliked him (to say the least) and deemed him useless after it seemed he had failed to have been passed on the Uchiha sharingan. Minato had been like a father, despite seemed to slightly favor Kakashi more in arguments. Then Kakashi—the brother he'd never had. (Obito couldn't help but think of the child-prodigy Itachi, and how Fugaku (the Clan head who just happened to have disliking of Obito) and Mikoto (Obito's mother figure who might be one of the only Uchihas who actually liked Obito) were expecting another child. Despite not really liking him, Fugaku and Mikoto would be good parents, and the child would have an amazing brother in Itachi. Obito sighed wistfully at those thoughts). And then Rin, sweet, sweet Rin.

Obito would've called Rin his sister, but he loved her too much for that. A mere 'sister' tag slapped onto Rin wouldn't do. She was too magnificent and beautiful to just be a sister.

The cold touch of skin with his toe notified Obito that he had reached his destination. Shaking himself out of his mind, Obito look down and saw her. Floating slightly in a pool of blood—Kiri-nins' and hers—Rin's wide open brown eyes looked up at Obito accusingly, as if asking: _why were you late this time, Obito? The one time you had to be on time. . . ._

Her brown hair looked black, or even maroon, thanks to the blood soaking in her hair. Lying to rot in a pool of the liquid, with only maggots for company was a too cruel of a death for his Rin.

Obito picked her up gingerly, and hugged her, careful to avoid touching the gaping hole in her chest. Charred ends of her intestines dripped slightly out, and her whole torso smelled of charred flesh. Was the world really so cold to do this to Rin? To do this to _him_?

_Madara is right. _

_This world. . . ._

_This place. . . ._

_It is all corrupt._

_It must end._

_For the eternal solution._

_For the ultimate peace._

_For _Rin_._

"I won't forget you Rin." Obito muttered into Rin's blood-matted hair. By now, he could only feel blood. It was under his clothes, icy cold to his skin. It was in in his hair. Under his nails, digging into their beds. Smears made tracks all over his body. "I won't forget you!" He shouted louder.

He glanced to the side at another part of his family. Obito looked at Kakashi, his silver mop of hair, no longer looking so silver, it too taking on the red theme of the marsh. Did he dare to hope? Leaning forward, Obito placed his hand on Kakashi's chest. The faintest throb was felt. Obito knew it was risky—it was unlikely Kakashi would survive, and if he did, did he really want to see Kakashi anymore? Wouldn't it spare his old friend pain if he never knew that Obito had survived? Anyways, Minato and the others would come for Kakashi eventually. . . .

_Minato_.

His father, his teacher, his friend.

Obito's hands tightened into fists.

No. When Obito himself had 'died' Minato hadn't been there in time.

Kakashi had lost an eye because Minato hadn't been there on time.

When Rin died, Minato didn't come in time.

How could he trust Minato with the last part of Obito's family?

Minato had let him down one too many times, and Obito wasn't going to let Kakashi die if he could help it.

After burying Rin and covering her grave with every wildflower to be found in the battle-torn marsh, Obito came back to Kakashi's unconscious form. "Come on Kakashi!" Obito muttered, and he ran off with chakra powering his steps. He bounded through the marsh, blood splashing in his footsteps.

Madara had told him the outlines of the Eye-of-the-Moon plan, but the grumpy old Uchiha hadn't said anything about Obito not being able to have friends. After all, had the old coot seen Kakashi, he would've probably said he was more capable than Obito himself.

The first thing Obito would concern himself with was getting Kakashi a medic. The fact that Obito had found Kakashi lying in a pool of blood was probably not the best thing for his friend's health.

"Come on Kakashi! Don't fail on me now baka!"


	2. 1: First Steps

**Chapter 1**

Kakashi opened his one eye, a pounding sensation throbbing behind his eyes. A soft groan escaped his mouth involuntarily. It was at that moment, the silver-haired teen realized that his face was cold and uncovered.

Running his fingers over his uncovered face, Kakashi looked around the area. Upon glancing down at his hand, Kakashi could see dark, crusted blood under his fingernails. Someone had scrubbed off the majority of it away, but it dug into his nail's beds relentlessly, bothering him to no end.

The room (if the cave-like room could be called a proper room) was dark and lit by small lamps. The air had a musty and damp quality to it, and Kakashi could feel the dust invading his nose without the mask protecting him. Some medical supplies were packed to the side of the room, on a shabby little table of sorts. Little over-the-counter pills were there, as well as chakra pills and blood replenishers.

Feeling the coarse material of the black shirt Kakashi was wearing, he realized that it wasn't _his _shirt. Not his one with the mask stitched in—this one reminded him of civilians' shirts. He snorted in disgust and stood up, only to sit back down hard as a fiery pain engulfed his leg as Kakashi tried putting weight onto it.

"Hey, Kakashi, don't walk around okay? I couldn't really find a medic, so the whole thing was kinda icky. I think you may have pulled a muscle in your leg," A voice from the shadows called. As a shinobi, Kakashi's mind screamed to be cautious, but the human part of Kakashi told him to respond.

So he did.

"Did you help me?" Kakashi asked, unsure of what to say. As the burning in his leg lessened, he decided it was okay to continue. "Hey, what happened? Um, you see—I think some shinobi from my village would come. . . . and Rin, she's a good medic. . . . We could get her to come heal me. . . ." His voice trailed off as the voice made to speak again.

The small voice in the back of Kakashi's head was screaming he was being _way _too open to someone as a shinobi, but another thing in his mind said it was alright. Something about the voice just reminded him about his long peaceful chats at the memorial stone. It was almost . . . nice.

"You don't remember do you?" It asked quietly.

"Remember what? What do you mean? Why hasn't Konoha shinobi tried to find me? What about _Rin_?!" Kakashi felt himself growing more and more agitated, uncontrollable emotions swelling up. He felt unusually exhausted, and that left no energy for suppressing the waves of panic his brain was sending to him.

"Kakashi—"

"Show me your face! How am I supposed to believe your words if I can't see yo—" Kakashi's voice died into a squeak as the voice's owner complied with his wishes. "O-Obito?" His voice cracked in shock. The eye resting in his left eye socket started to itch, and he couldn't help but double check his vision.

Yet, it had to be. Despite the wrinkled and marred right half of the teen's face, it was definitely Obito, or at least an Uchiha, if the sharingan in the boy's right eye was anything to go by. And the voice was something like the one Kakashi would conjure up when he was talking to the memorial stone. Him and Obito. Like old times (though that really long hair cut would have to go, Kakashi decided).

"Baka-shi. Yo." Obito smiled, and his face split in a smile. That stupid, irritating smile that used to piss Kakashi off to no end (of course he'd never admitted it). Yes—it had to be Obito.

"Hey Obito, do you mind if I take this arm?" A voice asked innocently from the shadows.

Kakashi's relaxed form stiffened up again, tensed muscles releasing more pain from his leg. Biting down a whimper, he squinted towards the voice's source. "What was that?"

"Hmm? Oh, that? That was GuruGuru—come out Guru! Also, yeah, I don't need that arm, feel free to have it," Obito nodded nonchalantly, as if he was just lending a ryo to a friend, not a human body part (was it even? Kakashi peered at the mangled limb suspiciously).

A strange humanoid figure walked up, white pasty skin covering in a swirl pattern. Yellow lamp-like eyes stared down at Kakashi. "Hi-yah!" He chirped, which would've been an amazing start to Kakashi and GuruGuru's friendship, except for the bloodied hand in his hand. Following Kakashi's uncertain gaze, GuruGuru lifted the hand easily. "This, you see Mister, is very rich in fiber and nutrients, and is very good for plants."

"Plants? But you're a—"

Obito elbowed him, "He gets a bit sensitive about being part-plant. Don't push it."

Kakashi looked at him in disbelief, "Fine. . . ." Shaking his head again, Kakashi sighed and looked at Obito, surprise still ringing in his ears. "Wait, so tell me what happened? You said Rin—"

Obito immediately sobered up, and even GuruGuru shuffled back into the shadows (to do whatever plant thing he did with human limbs) to give them privacy. Obito stared at Kakashi with a mixed expression. "I don't really know how to explain it. Even . . . I can't explain it. . . I _don't _want to be able to explain it. . . ."

"Then don't. Tell me later." Kakashi shook his head tiredly. "Tell me about how you survived then."

"What? Oh, me . . . ." Obito paused, unsure of how to explain ("Oh yes, this crazy old man who claimed to Madara Uchiha just happened to find my body and revived me somehow, and he was powering his life with a super-powerful statue, and now he passed his plans onto me and I'm going to destroy the world to make a better one where Rin is still alive—oh yes, did I mention Rin's dead?—well, she is, and I was wondering if you'd like to help!").

"It's complicated," Obito said in a guarded tone.

"Well, thanks for . . . doing whatever you did," Kakashi said uncertainly, staring at the blood on his fingers. The grainy texture of the maroon blood was bothering him, itching on his skin. He was _sure _he remembered _something_. What had happened? Why couldn't he recall—

A small dark grayish spider crawled along the cave wall. As the fire's light gleamed off the spider's hairy body, a velvety purple shone out. _Purple. Purple. _Rin had purple patches on her cheeks. _Purple. _Rin. _Purple. Rin. Purple. Rin. Rin. _Rin.

"Argh!" Kakashi bent down, pain blasting through his nerve system, starting at his left eye—his sharingan. Hoping to relinquish the undeniable itch in his eye, Kakashi ripped off the homemade bandage over it and the eye forced itself open, blood red iris shining out at the world.

Obito grunted as his already open sharingan started sucking up large amounts of chakra. Sure the little thing had always taken more chakra than your average eye, but this was _much _more than usual. Obito staggered from the sudden depletion and Kakashi groaned again, shaking limbs trying to get ahold of something solid.

Looking into each other's faces, the two watched, mesmerized, as the three tomoe of the sharingan started to stretch and grow, until they spread into a spherical pattern that warped in on itself. Soon the transformation was finished, and their eyes shone, identical mangyeko sharingan patterns.

"What is this?" Kakashi asked breathlessly; sweat chilling him in the cold underground air. Hair hanging down damp, he stared intrigued at the glowing sharingan in Obito's right eye socket.

Obito stared so closely at Kakashi's eye that he couldn't help feeling a bit awkward. "I don't know. . . . I've never seen it before. Wait—" Obito sucked in sharply.

_The Kiri-nin. Rin. Dead. Blood. Wood. Spike. Kill. Kill them all. Make them pay. Kakashi. On the ground. Bury Rin. Blood. Mud. Dirt. Ground. Flowers. Kill. Kiri-nin. Kill. Rin._

"The—back in the field," Obito gasped. "I remember now! The eye felt like how it is now. I think that was partially why civilian medics didn't want us—the eye kinda scared them."

"What do you _mean_?!" Kakashi growled, partially irritated, but mostly from the way Obito seemed to be hesitating to tell him the answer.

Obito stared at him, slightly in disbelief, "You seriously can't tell?"

Rolling his eyes, Kakashi could almost forget that they were in a slimy old cave with barely any light. He could almost ignore the dirt and grim grating against his skin under his clothes. He could almost feel like this was before Obito had 'died' and they were just two bickering children on Team Minato. Almost.

"Well, I'm sorry but I wasn't born surrounded by red-eyed weirdoes!" Kakashi snapped.

Obito groaned, "It's called the Mangyeko Sharingan. It's like a rarer more advanced version of the sharingan. I don't understand much about it." He pondered it quietly in his mind. _Madara didn't mention it—or maybe I was just knocked out? I did tend to do quite a bit of that. . . ._

"Well . . . should we give it a go?" Kakashi asked hesitantly.

Obito nearly did a double-take. _This _was Hatake Kakashi—the boy who was stiffer than a board at times, yet here he was, suggesting to do something more reckless than anything the boy had ever done before. _Maybe Rin affected him more than he knows . . . _Obito thought, a vine of guilt creeping up on him.

"Do you even know how to work it?" Obito leaned against the wall. "And if anyone's doing it, _I _am. Your chakra still isn't very stable." Flashing a glance at the Hatake again with his sharingan, Obito confirmed that the weakly pulsing blue tracks in Kakashi's body were his chakra coils.

"Oi! I can do it—" Kakashi bit down a curse as a wave of pain rolled in from his muscles as he tried to stand up.

Obito lifted an eyebrow at him and after wiping off a layer of sweat Kakashi reluctantly nodded. "Fine," He growled, a slight pout turning down the corner of his mouth.

_Mouth. Pout. Mouth. _

Obito froze and relooked over Kakashi's face. Kakashi's _face_. Kakashi looked at him oddly as Obito ogled his face in shock.

_After all this time without him showing us his face, you'd think he'd actually have an ugly one_. Obito was suddenly very happy that he got rid of all of the shirts Kakashi had had that had a mask attached to them (sure, before it was because they were all drenched in blood, but now the decision was all the more sweeter). _Now if only Rin could see. . . . _Obito's inner cackling instantly ceased. _Rin._

"What? Obito?" The confusion on Kakashi's face was so shockingly obvious with having a whole face to look at. The silver-haired teen awkwardly slapped aside Obito's hands that were trying to touch his face as if to see if it was really there. "Stop it!"

"Your . . . face . . . .?" Obito said as if that cleared up everything.

Kakashi rolled his eyes, "And . . . what? Did you think I had a void where my mouth was or something?" He acted like it was such an ordinary thing Obito felt like an idiot (making Obito feel like such seemed to be Kakashi's talent). But still: _Kakashi's face_! Screw the Mangyeko Sharingan for later, right in front of him was _Kakashi's face_.

"Possibly. . . . But why'd you never show you face to us?" Obito demanded.

Looking to the side hesitantly, Kakashi stared at the wall, "Did anyone ever tell you about my father?"

Obito exhaled slowly, "White Fang?" Taking Kakashi's sharp intake of breath as a yes, he continued. "Yeah. . . . Minato-sensei told me. . . ."

Kakashi's fists clenched, hurt laced in his voice. "He told you? _Why_? He knew how much that meant to me . . . ."

"Kakashi, it's okay—I don't judge you—"

"Shut up!" Obito was shocked to see the faintest glimmer of tears in Kakashi's mismatched eyes. "You don't understand. . . ." His voiced faded in the end, because both he and Obito knew that Obito _did _understand.

Obito had always been teased by his family members since he hadn't "met their expectations" as an Uchiha.

He was almost disowned by the clan chief Fugaku a rather horrifying mistake Obito had done.

People had thought of him as a nuisance, only a prank-causing rat that would easily be exterminated and not missed.

"It's all right—" Obito started, only stopping when real tears started pouring down Kakashi's face. _What is this? I've never seen him laugh before, much less cry._

"No it's not. Obito . . . do you know what I said to him?" Kakashi's chin quivered. "I told him I hated him. That night he did suicide." He spoke quietly.

Slamming his bandaged fist to the stone ground Kakashi screamed out a curse. "He didn't deserve that! Obito, he didn't earn that from the others or his own son! What sort of person am I? I treated him awful—I was his _son _and I treated him like trash!"

Obito shivered, _how do you comfort people? Helping old people with groceries is so much easier. Rin would know what to do . . . . _

Obito spoke hesitantly. "I- um, Kakashi. . . . It was okay, I didn't treat you all too nicely either, did I?"

"At least you treated your comrades well! '_Those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum_' right? I left you and Rin back then, and then you 'died' for it. I don't care if it was for real or not. You died a hero, Obito. If I had died that day, I would have died scum."

Obito shivered and suddenly realized why this conversation was rattling him so much: he had just learned a little more in this conversation that Hatake Kakashi was human too.

Finally, after Kakashi collapsed from exhaustion, Obito while reflecting upon the day realized that Kakashi had never told him why he wore his mask, and Obito had never told Kakashi about how Rin was dead.

Obito was so not looking forward to telling Kakashi about it.


End file.
